HPV Vaccine

Running Head : GARDASIL AS MANDATORY

Should or Should not Gardasil be Mandatory for Sixth-grade Girls (Student 's Name (University

Should or Should not Gardasil be Mandatory for Sixth-grade Girls

The human papillomavirus (HPV ) is a sexually transmitted virus that may cause a number of illnesses , one of which is cervical cancer that inflicts 12 ,000 women and kills 3 ,700 women every year (Senay , 2007 Allen , March 2 , 2007 . According to Dr . Emily Senay (2007 , 1 out of 4 women have HPV , and in the age group of 20-24 , 45 of women have

the virus .While the different states discuss the possibility of including Gardasil in the list of school vaccines , the only existing vaccine against four of the hundreds of types of HPVs , Texas became a trail blazer by being the first state to issue an executive requiring the vaccine to be a requirement for sixth-grade girls (with the possibility of opting out based on religious or philosophical reasons (Allen , February 8 , 2007 . Faced with the on-going discussions country-wide on whether or not Merck 's Gardasil should be compulsory for a certain slice of the population , this will attempt to look at both sides of the issue . Ultimately , this would show that the executive of Texas ' governor is correct , that Gardasil (or an equally effective vaccine in the future ) should be obligatory for grade-six girls . To even go one step further , the vaccine ought to be obligatory not only for grade-six girls but even to grade-six boys

This argumentative essay will have four parts : a short discussion on the existing HPV vaccine an exposition of the arguments against mandating of the HPV vaccine an exposition of the arguments for the mandating of the HPV vaccine and a conclusion stating why mandating of the vaccine makes more sense than not mandating it to grade-six girls and boys

Gardasil , an HPV Vaccine

The huge pharmaceutical company , Merck , came out with Gardasil , the world 's first HPV vaccine last year , and was granted a license by the Food and Drug Administration for use of women ages 9-26 mid of 2006 (Guardian Unlimited , 2006 . This new vaccine is intended to protect against four types of HPV 's , types 6 , 11 , 16 , and 18 . These HPV types account for 70 of cervical cancer cases and 90 of genital wart cases (Medical News Today , 2006 . As such , the vaccine could give 100 protection against diseases caused by these four HPV strains . In general , Gardasil is meant to protect women against the following diseases : cervical cancer , genital warts , cervical adenocarcinoma cervical intraepithelial neoplasia , vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia and vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia (Merck , 2007 ,

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Aside from its obvious beneficial effects on women , men may also benefit from this vaccine . According to gynecologic oncology Professor Bradley Monk , men may also benefit from this vaccine by protecting them against genital warts , as well as making them less prone from being carriers of the said virus strains